The Stars Are Lovely This Time of Year
by blue.puffy.spade
Summary: Who knew half a night on the roof of their house would lead to so much more? Now Jane and Darcy are in a relationship, and goodness knows how it'll turn out. Jane/Darcy
1. Stargazing, the Best Matchmaker

**A/N: So I know that there aren't many Jane and Darcy shippers out there, but I just decided to write this fic because I find them rather interesting together. Also note this might be a random series of one-shots, may or may not be continuous, I'm still thinking. Maybe both. They may take place in different places, from a period before Thor to around Thor 2, Avengers included in-between. This chapter is before Thor, and set in Puente Antiguo. And sorry if this doesn't make sense, it's explaining how their relationship came to be,**

CHAPTER 1: Stargazing, the Best Matchmaker

Most people considered working late at night when or when it was raining to be an absolute chore. But Jane, Darcy and Erik weren't one of those 'most people'.

Working late at night or when it was raining was a part of their jobs. During storms, Jane would go straight-out insane. Driving around the New Mexican desert, with a home-made machine in hand, checking everything, and occasionally dragging Darcy out of the van with her to get a better reading of goodness knows what while Erik stayed behind to keep an eye on some other machine.

On most nights, Jane would sit on the roof of the house she shared with Darcy and stare at the stars with something running through her head.

Darcy would be asleep through most of that, except for that one night. That one, fateful night, Darcy couldn't sleep. She had no idea why. So, not wanting to waste any time rolling around on her bed, she climbed out of it, still in her loose pajamas, and headed up to the roof of the house.

Jane was there. She was usually there, just sitting, staring into space, her figure casted in heavy shadows, a faint outline casted by the dim streetlights. Darcy walked towards her, and sat down on the edge of the roof beside her. Jane noticed, but she didn't say a word. Instead, she smiled a little, eyes still fixed on the glistering stars. The two sat in a comfortable silence until Darcy decided to say something.

"Don't you get bored? Staring at the same stars all the time," Darcy said, turning her head towards Jane.

"It's not _just_ the stars. There's so much more to staying up here." Jane replied, not turning to look at Darcy. She raised an eyebrow, raising her head to look up. Sure, there were constellations, the moon, but Darcy didn't get just what Jane meant by 'not just the stars'.

"What does that mean?" She asked.

"It's lovely up here. It's so peaceful and relaxing. I have enough time to think, too."

'_She just likes her alone time._' Darcy figured.

The atmosphere was quiet once again. Clouds rolled across the deep blue of the sky, hiding the moon and a couple of stars. As the cloud soon uncovered the moon, Jane suddenly turned to Darcy.

"What are you doing up here?" she asked.

"Couldn't sleep," Darcy said. As she said the word 'sleep', she remembered that she had worn her loose pajamas up. Almost immediately, Darcy felt the cool night air blow against her bare, left shoulder. She pulled her sleeve up, and the bit of fabric pooling around her hand, placed on the ground, was lifted up.

"It's so cold tonight," Jane muttered. Darcy noticed that Jane was only wearing her thin, light blue t-shirt and jeans. Her jacket and scarf were in the house.

Darcy reached her left hand out, wrapped it around Jane and pulled her closer. She let her head rest on Jane's shoulder, her hair brushing against Jane's neck.

"Warmer?" Darcy asked.

"Warmer. Much warmer," Jane said, laughing softly. Her arm reached out to give a one-armed hug to Darcy, and the sides of their bodies making contact through the fabric of their clothes.

"If someone were to see us right now they'd assume we were in those cliché little romance movies," Darcy said, chuckling a little. "The couple, sitting by the river, arms wrapped around each other with the lady's head on her man's,"

"So I'm a man now?" Jane asked playfully. She rubbed her hand against Darcy's.

"I said a couple in a romance movie… unless that's what you're trying to imply?" Darcy said, smirking cheekily.

Jane blushed. "N-no, of course not, why would you even…" her voice trailed off. "But, y-yeah, we do look like it…"

Darcy lifted her head up and looked at Jane. She was looking up at the moon, a perfect crescent above the girls' heads. Darcy looked to the moon. As the astrophysicist's intern, they always stared at the night sky, but today was one of the first times Darcy had actually paid such close attention to them.

"I've never realized how beautiful the night sky is, although I always look at it," Darcy muttered. Jane heard. She nodded slightly, not knowing how to reply. She kept her eyes fixed on the moon.

"Just like you," Darcy added abruptly. But she knew exactly what she said. She meant exactly what she said, too. It wasn't just to watch Jane's cheeks turn boiling red.

"Just like me…" Jane repeated. Her eyes widened upon realizing Darcy meant that she was beautiful. She bit her bottom lip, cheeks flushing. She didn't know how to reply just yet. What if she replied 'you too' when Darcy had meant it as a joke? For the third or fourth time, the two sat in silence, this being more awkward then plain or comfortable.

Darcy's head fell to rest on Jane's shoulder again.

"But I can't compare you to the sky. They don't have hair," Darcy said, making Jane laugh a bit at the comment and break the awkwardness up.

"Are you just trying to get me to blush? Or to crack up?" Jane asked. Darcy shook her head.

"No. I meant it," Darcy whispered. She looked at the town of Puente Antiguo, streetlights and the lights on some shops illuminating the pair.

"Y-you too, I guess?" Jane stammered nervously, not knowing what else to say. Her hand, gripping Darcy's arm tightly, slid up to her shoulder.

"I said we looked like a couple in romance movies, not acted like one," Darcy said. "But I'm totally fine with the latter."

"D-Darcy, why are you suddenly so…" Jane asked.

"Why am I suddenly so 'in love' you? I've just never said it out before," Darcy replied.

"You mean, you like, like me?" Jane said, puzzled. Darcy had never shown any signs of liking her in the lab, or at home. Maybe she was simply feeling sleepy and wasn't thinking straight. But whatever it was, Jane was hoping her answer was a 'yes'.

"Depends, which kind of like?" Darcy said.

"L-love kind of like," Jane stammered. She felt slightly awkward asking her best friend if she liked her, but Darcy seemed to be cool with it.

"I shouldn't be this truthful with you, 'cuz you're most likely straight, but a quite a bit," Darcy admitted. No, Jane was bi. But she didn't really want to correct Darcy now.

She had never thought of Jane as her lover, although she did find her attractive and hot even. She did not expect to confess anytime soon, but here she was, on the roof of their house, telling her boss her feelings towards her. Darcy didn't even know how if it could be considered love. She liked how she would hunch over her papers, or her computer, with her hair tied into a messy bun, how she often forgot to do necessary human things like sleeping, eating or drink, how she got so ecstatic during a storm, how – alright, it was love.

Jane had no idea how to react. This was not the answer she had expected. Never had she thought that her intern held feelings for her. But, who was she to say, when she herself liked Darcy? Should she just admit that she liked Darcy too? Or maybe she could just outright lie and perhaps regret that choice if her feelings got stronger one day. No, tell the truth it was.

"Me too, Darce,"

Not the best way to put it, but she would most likely end up stuttering and getting her words messed up and sounding like an outright fool if she had put it anyway else.

Darcy smiled softly upon hearing her friend's reply. 'Me too' – it was a mutual liking. She could have cheered, or hugged Jane until she turned blue, but chose to stay silent for now.

They hadn't thought this through. In a span of 15 minutes, the truth was out. No dramatic background music, tears, or anything. Just a quiet 15 minutes, staring at the stars and occasionally each other. '_Now what do we do?_' Darcy asked herself. She was in a relationship now. Was she? She didn't even know what to call it. They just discovered and admitted their mutual love for each other, but that didn't mean that they were actually dating.

"Does that mean we're, like, dating now?" She asked.

"Umm… if you want to date, I'm cool with it." Jane replied.

"Then we should totally date," Darcy replied ecstatically, laughing slightly as she said it. "It'll be fun. So I guess we are the couple in the movie now."

"Yeah, a girl-girl couple," Jane said. A large cloud covered the night sky, leaving the moon as a dim spot in the clouds. Suddenly, Darcy let out a loud yawn. She shifted a bit and lifted her head off Jane's shoulder.

"I'm getting tired. I'm going in now," Darcy said.

"I'll go in too, then"

They stood up. Jane stretched a little, limbs having fallen asleep after being stationary for so long. Darcy opened the little trapdoor back down to the house.

"Goodnight, _love,_" She said.

Although Darcy meant it as a joke, Jane couldn't help but think that she was in a relationship with her intern. It sounded awkward when she put it like that, but in reality it seemed normal enough if you ignored the fact that both were of the female gender.

"Goodnight," Jane replied, following Darcy down the trapdoor ladder.

Yes, Darcy was right. They'd be having fun.


	2. We're The Couple in The Movie

The morning after that night on the roof, Jane woke up to a completely different feeling in the house. Not 'I'm-sure-the-curtains-were-white-not-hot-pink' different, but more of an 'I'm-a-new-person' different.

Jane stuck to her usual routine of waking Darcy up, although Darcy's alarm would have already rang. Jane walked to her intern's room and opened the door. As usual, she was half-asleep, her hand on the snooze button of her alarm clock, face buried in her pillow.

Jane shook Darcy lightly on the arm.

"Wake up, Darce," Jane said.

Darcy lifted her hand off the alarm, and turned over. She gave Jane a large, sleepy smile. She sat up and promptly wrapped her two hands around Jane.

"Morning," She greeted happily before letting go of the hug.

Darcy climbed out of bed as Jane exited the room. The hugs weren't part of the morning routine, but hey, why not add it in? Darcy felt that the relationship between them now was 'special', anyway.

After showering, getting dressed, and so on, Darcy went out to make the usual pot of coffee and bowls of cereal. She sat at the table for a few minutes before Jane walked out of her room. She grabbed a mug from the table and poured some coffee into it and took a sip.

"Does it taste any different?" Darcy asked.

"No. Why?" Jane replied a bit suspiciously.

"Because I made it with extra _love_"

Jane smiled and rolled her eyes at the same time.

"I should've guessed it was something like that, you being you." Jane said. "What's next, the cereal was poured with extra love too?"

"No, the cereal is normal,"

Jane smiled and sat down at the small table. The two ate and talked for a while until Darcy finished her cereal, glanced at the clock and –

"I think we're late!"

The clock read 7.25. They were supposed to be at the lab at 7.30 a.m., and it took about 10 minutes to get there. Erik was usually early too, so that means that he could be inside the lab and waiting for the girls to show up.

Jane made Darcy help take her things as she quickly finished the rest of her cereal and grabbed her coat. Within two minutes, the pair was out on the road, running towards their workplace.

Son enough, the girls finally reached the lab. They were panting and breathless from running there, but at least they were on time. Well, one minute past the time, but it still counted as on time. No doubt, Erik was already in the lab.

"Morning, Erik. We didn't keep you waiting too long, did we?" Jane said as she pushed the door open. Darcy trailed in after her.

"No, it's fine," Erik said.

They continued their work, researching, checking, and discussing. Somewhere through the day, around 3, Jane heard a soft buzzing noise from a screen across the room.

She got up from her seat and walked over. There was blue spot towards the upper part of the New Mexican desert, relatively far from Puente Antiguo. Blue spot equals to a relatively heavy thunderstorm. And it was quite big, too. The side of the monitor showed a number – 3. It would hit in an estimated time of 3 hours.

Erik and Darcy noticed what was going on too. They stared at the screen for a while until Jane spoke up.

"3 hours. It's nowhere near here, about a 1 and a half hour drive, so we should leave in about, half an hour." She muttered.

"So do we prepare the equipment while you get the van?" Darcy asked.

"You got it," Jane said. "Wait. Just let Erik prepare the machines. Darcy, help me tidy today's papers." Most likely because she'd break something like she did last time. Darcy gathered everything. She was quite sure half of the papers in the pile wouldn't be of any help, but she took them anyway.

The next thing she knew, Jane was back and asking her to help bring something into the van. The entire work day had gone normally. Maybe Jane was too absorbed in her science to think about their new relationship. Never mind, later on in the desert she could follow Jane out and attempt to make out with her in the rain or something.

"Darcy! We need to go!" Darcy snapped out of her thought upon hearing Jane's voice. She quickly grabbed the gadget on the desk behind her and hurried into the van.

The second Darcy got into the van Jane sped off and eventually got far away from the town of Puente Antiguo and into a part of the desert. They drove for goodness knows how long until Jane finally slowed down a bit and stopped.

"We're here," Jane announced. She looked out of the van window. The skies were getting dark, but perfectly clear. There were a couple of large and heavy clouds, but they were white and they saw no signs of rain.

"Erik, what time was the storm supposed to hit?" Jane asked.

"In about 10 minute's time," he said, rather puzzled as well.

Jane stood up from the driver's seat and walked behind where the other two were sitting.

The machines and GPS showed that they were at the correct location.

"I'm going out for a walk. My legs are gonna crumble off," Darcy said.

"I'm going too. Erik?" Jane asked.

"No, I'm good,"

Darcy slid the door open and climbed out, Jane following behind her. She closed the door behind her.

"Finally, fresh air," Darcy said, stretching out her limbs. Jane was still puzzling over why it was so clear right now. It was a large spot, so the machine couldn't possibly have made a false alarm, right? The area was still highlighted when Jane saw it just moments ago.

She walked in circles, thinking about the possibilities, when Darcy hugged her from behind.

"Come on, Janey, don't think too much, looks can be deceiving," She said. "Don't lie, you're wondering why it doesn't look like it's gonna rain,"

Darcy let go of Jane.

"I guess. The machine did estimate that it'll only arrive ten minutes from now." Jane replied. She looked up again. The clouds were rolling slowly across the sky, a few larger and heavier ones coming into view.

Darcy looked up at the sky.

"Look, the sun has nearly set," She pointed out. Indeed it was. The sky towards the west was a lovely red-orange shade, the east side already a dark blue colour. As the girls' heads turned to watch the sun set, Jane's ears picked up a soft dripping noise.

"Is that-" She asked. But before she could finish, she heard another two drips, followed by more and more.

"Yes it is,"

Before they knew it, the rain had gone past the light drizzling stage and was moderate enough for them to stand in it. The sun was nearly down completely now.

"It's getting heavier. Let's go in," Jane suggested.

"Just a minute," Darcy said. Jane looked at her strangely.

Before the word 'why' could come out of her mouth, Darcy's lips pressed softly against hers. Jane's eyes widened as their lips had made contact. She did not expect that one bit. She kissed back with a bit more strength, making Darcy press her lips harder against Jane's in response. They kissed for a while more before Darcy broke it apart. She gave Jane a tiny smile.

"Aren't we the couple from the cliché romance movie? The kiss in the rain as the sun goes down," Darcy said.

"If that's the case every time the sun sets I hope it rains, too," Jane replied.

"_Now _let's go in,"

They headed back into the van, where Erik was waiting.

"It rained at last. I've got a tiny reading in the change of…" Darcy stopped listening after the phrase 'change of'. It's not like she'd understand, anyway.

The only thing she could think of now was that if working for Jane meant dating her, she'd be Jane's intern for as long as she could.


	3. How About A Date?

Days had passed after the kiss in the desert. Jane and Darcy had started feeling much closer and open to one another.

During the long work hours, when they weren't out monitoring storms, they were in the lab doing what they did. They acted differently, though. They shared small hugs and touches even with Erik watching, and stood or sit close to each other most of the time.

Darcy would often peep over Jane's shoulder to view what was going on her screen, and as she left, her head would turn so that she could peck Jane's cheek. Little things like this were what strengthened their relationship and made them closer.

On that night, when they walked home in the moonlight, Darcy brought a suggestion up.

"We should go on a date soon,"

"But when do we have the time? I mean, we work until so late every day," Jane replied.

"We end a bit earlier on Sundays," Darcy said.

"Yeah, but we have another problem."

"What is it?"

"We're both kind of broke,"

Darcy stayed silent in realization.

"Well, then we can do something simple and cheap since none of us that kind of money to do anything expensive" Darcy replied.

"I don't mind," Jane said. They reached the door of the house. Jane unlocked the door and they went inside. "Let's plan the date on the roof,"

"We're having the date on the roof?" Darcy asked, puzzled.

"No, we plan the date on the roof, then carry it out somewhere that might or might not be the roof," Jane explained. She found the idea of having a date on the roof quite cute, but if someone stood at the right angle and looked up they could very well see what was going on. And depending on who was that person looking (hopefully not Erik or someone they know) it could spark up some very awkward conversations.

Darcy opened the trapdoor up to the roof and they climbed up. Taking their places on the edge, their discussion started.

"Which Sunday shall it be on? There's three more days until the next one," Darcy said.

"Depends on what we're doing." said Jane, secretly not knowing which one herself.

"I don't know. Perhaps we could have a special dinner?" Darcy suggested. "And what else do people do on dates?"

"Movies, outings, dances, karaoke…"

"Basically we could do anything but we just do it a bit more lovingly and it's considered a date?" Darcy cut Jane off.

"Where did that theory come from?" Jane asked.

"Karaoke never seemed like a romantic thing to me, nor did outings," Darcy said. "It's like, we go to a zoo, do some PDA, and get yelled at by the mothers there,"

"But doing anything? Then what about a trip to the supermarket?" Jane said playfully.

"Let's rule that idea out. The supermarket is never romantic,"

"The dinner idea sounds good enough, plus it'll be a Sunday so we won't be having it in the lab," Jane said.

"Alright, dinner. Do we need anything else?" Darcy asked.

"No, it's good like that. And there's nothing else to do after that apart from a movie, and there's nothing good showing now," Jane decided.

"So, if it's just dinner, then we'll have it next Sunday," Darcy said.

The two talked a bit more about the date before they went back in.

"Oh, and, Jane," Darcy said. "Don't think of what you want to prepare, I'll surprise you,"

Three days had passed and it was finally Sunday. Darcy was extremely exhilarated for the entire day. She had planned a fantastic meal. She had somehow found enough time to run out and buy whatever she needed. She put them in a cupboard and told Jane not to touch it until after Sunday.

On normal days they'd supposed to go home at Eight, but they would stay really late in the lab, getting carried away until nine or sometimes ten. But on Sundays, they could go home at seven, and Jane and Erik would, surprisingly, stick to the timing.

On that day, once they reached home, Darcy told Jane to hide in her room and wait until she was done. Jane was eager to know what Darcy had planned for them as well, and seemed unwilling to have to wait.

Darcy wasn't a person to cook, but this was an exception. But she couldn't really call it cook, she just shoved some meat into a toaster (that worked, she's done it before), added sauce to it while something else cooked in a pot. She made sure everything was alright before beating the eggs and frying them. Everything was done in half an hour. She laid the table, making the food she prepared arranged nicer than she usually did. Darcy felt so productive. '_Wait until Jane sees'_ she thought.

She took a good look at what she made before heading to Jane's room.

"Janey! You can come out now!" Darcy said, opening her door. Jane left the chair and walked out. Darcy covered Jane's eyes with her hands.

"Don't look yet," She said. She led Jane to the table and uncovered her eyes.

Jane's eyes widened. Never in a million years would she have thought that Darcy was capable of something like that. It looked like what one would serve in a fancy restaurant, laid out nicely and all.

"Well, let's start it, then," Darcy announced.

They began their date in the dining room, eating the home-cooked food and chatting. They dined in a familiar and messy environment, and although it wasn't the best place for a date, it felt absolutely perfect. There was not much else on the girls' minds apart from the topic they were on.

The dinner lasted for a long time, although it felt too short. Short, but nothing could beat it.

The next morning, when Jane woke up, she immediately realized two things – that she clearly wasn't in her room, and that someone was in the same bed as her. She rolled over and found the answer to both things: Darcy. She was in her room, in bed with her.

After their date last night, Darcy had come up with a little trick to get Jane in the same bed. She met Darcy's face as she turned over. Her partner was still asleep, breathing softly as she slept.

Jane lay there in the silence for a while, watching the brunette. Suddenly, the alarm clock rang, and Darcy shifted a bit before reaching her hand out to stop the alarm. She opened her eyes only to find Jane looking back at her.

"Morning, Janey," She greeted sleepily. She wrapped her arms around Jane, and pulled herself closer.

"Good morning," Jane said in return. She returned Darcy's warm hug.

"Stay for a while more, let's just be late again today," she said happily. Jane would normally oppose to being late for work, but she felt so happy like that.

"Sure," She agreed. "Let's stay here for a while more."


	4. Loopholes!

**A/N: Hey guys, I want to thank you for the follows, favourites and reviews. This chapter will be a bit shorter than the others. Also, school will be starting again soon, and I'll have less time to update, so bear with me, alright? Thanks in advance!**

Darcy and Jane sat there, speechless and shocked. Darcy gripped onto Jane's arm tightly, staring at the older man standing at the doorway. Erik was equally awkward as the two girls.

Jane's face was flushed in embarrassment. She did not expect Erik to be back this soon.

It was one in the afternoon, and they were going to have lunch. They would normally send Darcy to buy something back, but Jane was busy explaining something to her today so Erik volunteered to go instead.

When Jane was done explaining, Darcy managed to remember everything and say it out, so Jane, as a reward, had kissed her, and that was when Erik returned and made everything awkward as hell for them.

He was silent, not knowing what to say. It was too late to act like nothing had happened. He could go with the choice of asking the obvious 'are you guys dating or something' or simply say 'I got lunch' and make it even tenser. He went with the former, although he was quite sure the answer would be a yes.

"Um… well, we sort of, err…" Jane stuttered and looked away.

"Yep," Darcy said. "You got it,"

Jane's face turned even redder, something that did not seem possible.

"You don't really mind, do you?" Darcy asked.

"N-No, it doesn't really bother me. Just don't make out when you know I'm watching."

Erik put the food down on the table. Darcy smirked and turned to Jane.

"But that means when we don't know he's watching we can make out," She whispered cheekily. Jane laughed. Loopholes. What else would she expect Darcy to come up with?


	5. Unexpected Emotion

"Janey, if I don't know anything about outer space, why did you even hire me as your intern?" Darcy asked curiously. Jane and Darcy were walking home one day, and she suddenly thought of the question.

"Well, you were the only applicant," Jane replied, not giving much of a second thought to it. Darcy turned to look at her. Jane looked back and realized that her friend had given her a look mixed between sadness and betrayal. She was pouting, wide puppy eyes looking extremely pitiful. Jane didn't think that it was a bad thing, nor would Darcy react so negatively towards it.

"Y-you mean like, I only got it by d-default…?" Darcy said, sounding like she was about to cry. She didn't expect that. She had no idea why this affected her so much – maybe it was the fact that she was in a town where she was only knew two people, so she had grown way too attached to Jane. Maybe it was because she never did have any good friends before meeting boss lady. But whatever it was, Darcy felt terribly upset with the news.

"Darce, no, it's not like that, don't be so sad," Jane stuttered, a bit overwhelmed by Darcy's reaction. She had no idea how to reply. Of course it wasn't _just _by default; some of the things in her application were what Jane needed as well.

Darcy wasn't completely convinced. They reached the house. As she unlocked the door, Jane tried to explain.

"Well, you did know computer programming, as I needed and you were good at mental calculations, just that you didn't really know much about the stars… And I could have waited longer for another applicant as well, just that you were good enough for us…" Jane said.

Darcy nodded and stopped pouting.

"Alright," She said. However, Jane could clearly tell that although Darcy believed her, she still felt rather unhappy over that. Jane felt bad seeing her so affected by the news.

"You're still upset, aren't you?" She asked. Darcy nodded. "I'll make it up to you,"

Darcy looked up. "Let's sleep together again," She suggested. That was most likely what she had in mind from the start. Jane nodded. If that made her happy, then why not just do it? Darcy smiled.

"Let's go, then." That was confirmed what she had in mind.


	6. A Hand in Mine

"Oh, come on. Why now?" Jane muttered as she tinkered around with one of her smaller machines. It was lagging a lot recently and often screwed the signal up. And today, it crashed completely, giving her a dark grey screen with an error message. She would have to try fixing it, but the thing was – she had no idea how to.

Jane didn't work well with software issues, only the hardware problems. The programming was done mainly by Darcy and Erik. She'd just have to ask them how on earth to deal with a crash.

"What's wrong?" Darcy asked, walking to where Jane was standing. She peeped over Jane's shoulder.

"Did it crash?" She asked after a moment or so.

"I think so," Jane replied. "It showed me this error screen thing…"

"Yeah, it crashed."

"Do you know how to fix it?" Jane asked.

Darcy nodded. "I think so."

She went over to Jane's side and picked the machine up. She took a look at it before flipping it around. She pulled the back cover off the machine. Immediately, both of them knew what was wrong. A part of the circuit had been messed up badly, and the card was cracked badly. It was an old machine. Jane had dropped it once or twice before, and this was the result of that.

"The parts to be replaced"

"That's fantastic. We don't keep spare cards around here." Jane grumbled. She was in a bad mood; today was surely not her day. She had the wires and everything and it would be easy enough to untangle some of them, but the card was the problem. Now they'd have to go down to the hardware store and get a new one.

"Shall we just get over it and buy one now?" Darcy suggested.

"Alright." Jane decided. They told Erik where they were going, and almost immediately they were out on the street, making their way to the hardware store.

They walked in a comfortable silence. Jane was deep in thought about how she should fix it, and Darcy was simply watching her. If Jane hadn't noticed her girlfriend's eyes staring at her, surely she wouldn't notice if Darcy did something, right?

Darcy looked forward again and grinned. She stuck her right hand out and held on softly to Jane's left hand. No reaction from her. Jane had not noticed. Darcy smiled even wider. Her fingers slipped through Jane's, grip growing tighter once they fell into a comfortable position.

Only then did Jane notice what she was up to. She snapped away from her thoughts and looked at their entwined hands. Jane didn't know how to act. It was cute, sure, but out in public…

"Are you sure about this? Holding hands in public?" Jane asked.

Darcy nodded. "Why not?"

Jane smiled back and tightened her grip on Darcy's hand. While holding hands were usually the first step of one's relationship, for her and Darcy, to hold hands in a public area was really daring act. People might criticize them, but they didn't care.

As they walked down the street, not many people noticed how they held hands, and even so those that noticed didn't say a word. And if that was how the others reacted, Jane wouldn't mind holding Darcy's hand more often.


	7. Feverish

As the alarm clock rang, Darcy stuck to the usual pattern of smashing the 'snooze' button and go back to sleep. Most of the time she would try to get up and keep herself awake, but today she just felt terrible. She didn't bother to open her eyes, or take her hand off the clock.

Her head ached, and she felt cold in one part of her body and hot in another. It felt like a fever, but she couldn't be so sure. She had spent the previous night out chasing storms with Jane and Erik again. She was out in the rain for longer than usual, and right after that went into the air conditioned van and went to bed the second they got home. It was no puzzle over why she had gotten sick.

She heard the door slowly creak open followed by the sound of light footsteps.

"Darcy?" A voice called out. It was Jane.

"Jane… I don't feel well," Darcy groaned. She rolled over, her limbs spread across the whole bed.

"Why? What's wrong?" Jane asked with a concerned tone. She made her way towards Darcy's bed. The bed sunk slightly under Jane's weight as she sat down by the side.

Darcy used as much strength as she could to sit up properly. She turned towards Jane and brushed the hair away from her face.

"I think it's a fever," Darcy said. She flopped back down onto the bed.

Jane pressed her hand against Darcy's forehead. It was much warmer than usual. It was a fever indeed. Jane's lips curved downwards into a frown.

"It's a fever, alright."

"Does that mean I have to stay home today?" Darcy asked.

"Yes."

"Then can you stay with me?"

"Why? I'm quite sure you're old enough to take care of yourself, right?" Jane questioned.

"I am," Darcy said. "But I'll be so lonely by myself. You'll be gone nearly the whole day,"

"I'm sure it won't be _too_ bad," Jane muttered.

"_Yes it will,_" Darcy argued back. Jane looked away for a second. She knew that the puppy eyes and pout would come next, and she would not give in this time. Jane bit her bottom lip and racked her brain for an idea.

"Alright. How about I try to come back earlier?" Jane suggested.

"How much earlier? Two hours?"

"One."

"Two."

"One and a half?"

"One and a half"

Darcy smiled broadly. Jane would be coming back earlier. That was great.

"Yay, that's great. Also, you know what else's great?" Darcy said cheekily.

"What?" Jane asked

"That you're going to be late, _again._"

It took a moment for Jane to properly register in her mind what Darcy had said.

"Oh no! Well, bye, see you tonight!" Jane got up from Darcy's bed and ran off in a hurried sprint.


End file.
